Weird font substitution problem

So this might be one of the strangest problems that I have ever seen in FileMaker.

We have a FileMaker 15 file with 300 layouts. All of these layouts were created back in FileMaker 10, and all of the layouts are using the Classic theme. On all 300 layouts, the font for all the fields and field labels throughout the entire system was either set to Verdana (12 point) or Lucida Grande (10 point).

The file is not corrupt... it passes the consistency check and the recovery with no problems found. This file is being hosted with FileMaker Server 15.0.3 on OS X 10.11.6, and the client machines are all running FMP 15.0.2 on OS X 10.11.6.

Everything has been working fine with the file for ages, and then suddenly, just a few hours ago, all 300 of the layouts have actually CHANGED the fonts on all the layouts! All the fonts throughout the entire system have changed! What was formerly Verdana 12 point is now Arial 12 point. and what was formerly Lucida Grande 10 point is now an "empty" font (no font name shows up in FileMaker) at 10 point.

The font changes have taken place AT THE LAYOUT LEVEL. If I go into layout mode, and click on any field, the "new" font and the "new" font size is what is shown in the "Format > Font" menu. So it's not some sort of "superficial" font substitution of text that's happening here... these font changes have actually taken place AT THE LAYOUT LEVEL. Crazy, I know!

Last night’s backup of this file? Everything is fine at the layout level. Today’s file? Everything is wrong at the layout level.

It seems as if somebody completely changed the theme for the entire file, but:

(a) Within the last 7 days, nobody has logged in as the [Full Access] user — which is the ONLY user that has access to modifying layouts.

(b) Every layout is still listed as the Classic theme, which can’t be modified. So nobody has modified the theme at all. The style throughout the system is still set to “Default style” as well.

Even if we stop hosting the file on FileMaker Server and open the file LOCALLY on any Mac's desktop, the same problem remains. This problem happens on all machines. Every single layout has the "new" font and "new" font size for all of its objects. Whether the file is opened remotely or opened locally, the "new" fonts are showing up on all the layouts in layout mode.

Font Book has all the right fonts installed, there are no font conflicts, there are no duplicate fonts. And this happens on all machines. The actual layouts have all been changed.

So now, we have 300 layouts that all have the wrong font for all the fields. I suppose that the quickest fix to this would be to duplicate the Classic theme as a new theme, get the new theme set with all the fonts that we want, and then apply the new theme to all 300 layouts.

But I'm extremely concerned about how this could have happened in the first place, and what can be done to prevent this in the future. Ideally, if there is some other way to fix this without creating a new theme, that would be incredible.

I ran a File > Recover on this file, and everything turned out fine. See screenshot below.

I also ran FMDiff on the file, and it found no errors in the file as well.

So there seems to be absolutely no problems nor corruption within in this file.

That seems to be good news, although I still have absolutely no idea how FileMaker Pro (or FileMaker Server) could have possibly altered all 300 layouts in this file to have a brand new font.

So this is quite a disturbing font problem in FileMaker Pro, although I suppose it's somewhat comforting that the file has no damage in it. Still not sure how this problem could have ever happened to a FileMaker file.

One crazy theory I had is that perhaps FileMaker has some problem with fonts in files that are over a certain size. This file is 22.74 GB before saving it as a compressed file, and it is 19.12 GB after saving it as a compressed file.

So maybe we reached some weird file size bug that starts messing with fonts in the system. Just an idea.

There are no container files stored internally in container fields -- all container files are stored EXTERNALLY to this database, so that lets you know how large this system really is -- because its large file size has nothing to do with container files.

Attachments

Thanks, that's a great question and great idea. I used FMDiff to compare the 2 files (see results above), but I'm not sure how to properly interpret the DDR's XML Report between the 2 files. Thoughts on how to successful compare the 2 files? I suppose I can use the "compare" function within BaseElements to spit out a report of the differences. Did you have a different idea in mind?

For comparing the DDR, I'd probably just start by manually comparing a couple of instances by opening the xml files in a text editor and searching for a few objects displaying the issue, assuming that the font issue is the same in all places. In BBEdit etc, you can of course also do a file comparison.

If those quick checks don't already give you any clear indications of changes (or the lack thereof), yes, I would run a diff/comparison report in CrossCheck or BaseElements.

This probably doesn't make much of a difference, but I have discovered that the fonts got swapped between 9am and 10am on Friday morning. We have FileMaker Server making hourly backups. Our Friday 9am backup was perfectly fine (the normal fonts), and our Friday 10am backup was swapped out with the wrong fonts at the layout level.

Thanks so much... I looked at the server log for that timeframe, and nothing unusual seems to have happened. No warnings or errors... Just the expected users, logging into and out of the system. So weird that sometime between 9am and 10am, all the fonts could have just changed. Must be a bug in the product.

It compared the 9am version of my file ("good fonts") to the 10am version of my file ("bad fonts"), and the resulting change report shows 499 style changes throughout the system! Crazy! No other changes listed in the report (except for the auto-enter serial #'s increasing).

It's so weird that this file was operating totally normally in a hosted environment on FMS 15.0.3... the file didn't get stopped and started again; FMS didn't get stopped or started again; nothing strange happened at all. Yet the backup at 9am shows normal fonts and by the time the 10am backup rolled around, the fonts were changed throughout the entire system.

one scenario i could think of is that someone with full access had still a hidden window open where some themes have been edited or other layout objects - font assignments - and if other users might have altered on different sessions schema or structure could have caused weird interference. Still a bug though.

Thanks, TSGal. I have checked the Access.log, and nobody with [Full Access] was logged in between 9am and 10am. (The only users who have access to modifying any layouts are people with the [Full Access] login.)

Thanks, FileKraft and CamelCase_data. I have checked the Access.log, and nobody with [Full Access] was logged in between 9am and 10am. (The only users who have access to modifying any layouts except for the [Full Access] login.)

I'm not sure what that newly added font is. It's called “.SF NS Text", but it doesn't appear in any of the "Format > Font" menus on any computers. Not sure what that font is or where it came from.